“Brave”, graphic art created by Azusa Tojo, an Art Assistant at Industrial Light & Magic, to launch The Film and TV Charity’s Bullying Pathway
If you’ve experienced or witnessed bullying, it’s probably had an impact on your mental health. The Film and TV Charity has launched a suite of new, confidential services to empower workers – digital incident recording tool Spot, the Bullying Pathway Service, and the Anti-Bullying Directory to signpost you to the support that’s available across the industry.
These free, independent services are for everyone who works behind the scenes in UK film and television – employees and freelancers.
Anyone can be a target of bullying. Your experience could be deeply personal criticism, abusive behaviour or specific discrimination or harassment like racism, homophobia, sexism, or ableism.
Whether it looks like this or something else, the important thing is that what happened made you feel uncomfortable. These new tools have been designed to help you look after yourself and others.
Spot is a digital tool to help you create a private record of something you’ve experienced or witnessed. Accessible online via the charity’s website, Spot will ask you a series of automated questions to help you capture key information and save relevant documents such as emails, photos, or screenshots, in one place. It could help you to identify a pattern of behaviour, give you something to refer to later, or handle a sensitive conversation in the future.
Each record you create remains completely confidential within the system. It’s not accessible by us or the charity. No human (not even Spot) will see what you’ve written.
Spot isn’t a reporting tool. Your information won’t be shared with anyone and the charity can’t take action on your behalf.
If you feel like you want to be heard, the Bullying Pathway Service is a first-of-its-kind support for people who work in film and TV, available for free by appointment via charity’s existing Film and TV Support Line 0800 054 00 00. A Bullying Pathway Advisor will be able to give you and industry-relevant legal, HR and mental health advice and information. Use it to talk through your experience and get specialist help.
Don’t feel like talking? The charity has created an Anti-Bullying Directory to help you find out what other support is currently available across the industry.
Remember you’re not alone. The charity has already helped 1 in 20 people in our industry during the Covid-19 crisis, providing independent mental wellbeing, financial and legal support.
Make sure you look after your mental health and speak to the charity if you need support. For more information visit the charity’s website.
These new services have been created as part of the Whole Picture Programme; a programme supported by Conduct Change to improve mental health in the film and TV industry. We’re working together, alongside mental health experts Mind, to develop trusted support that’s tailored for people who work in film and TV. Let’s keep looking out for each other.
Conduct Change was founded in 2019 with the purpose of changing behaviour in workplaces to create more courageous and compassionate approaches to prevent workplace bullying. The founder, Nicki Eyre, has been through her own workplace bullying experience during her career and recognises the scale of the problem at both an organisational and individual level.
We recognise that workplace bullying is a sensitive topic for many businesses. If you are concerned that you may have a bullying issue in your workplace, or just want help in opening up the conversations, we are here to advise. We offer a free and confidential discussion to understand the issues and explain what options are available for you.
t 07921 264920